Business buzz

Sunday

May 27, 2007 at 12:01 AM

Cindy Fisher Crawford, formerly of Tuscaloosa, won two first-place awards for reporting in the Sunshine State Awards, presented recently by the South Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.Crawford won in the medical/healthcare/science reporting category for “Survivor: A Portrait of Strength," a story about a woman’s battle against breast cancer. She also was on a team of reporters that won in the deadline news category for coverage in January 2006 of a wastewater treatment plant explosion that killed two city maintenance workers.The awards were for her reporting while a staff member of the Daytona Beach News-Journal, which competed in the Large Newspapers division against newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel, Miami Herald and Tampa Tribune.Crawford, who is managing editor of the Birmingham Business Journal, graduated from the University of Alabama College of Communication and Information Sciences in 1998.Jim Walter Resources Inc. in Brookwood has promoted Rodney L. Camp to director, marketing and transportation, and hired Charles “Chuck" M. Jones as general manager, marketing.Camp joined JWR in 1999 and was most recently general manager, marketing and transportation.Jones began his coal sales career in 1974 and has extensive experience in the industry. He is a native of Dayton, Ohio, and a graduate of Austin Peay State University.The Alabama State Bar recently recognized attorney Paige McCoy Oldshue of Rosen Harwood, P.A., in Tuscaloosa for a program she conducted with the Boy Scouts in conjunction with Law Day.The Board of Bar Commissioners, the bar’s governing and policymaking body, cited Oldshue for her efforts in planning, implementing and conducting an educational program for Boy Scouts from Jasper and Tuscaloosa to fulfill their Law Merit Badge requirements.President Dwight D. Eisenhower established Law Day in 1958 to celebrate the rule of law and underscore its contributions to freedom. It is observed on May 1 each year.The W.D. Partlow Developmental Center has promoted Officer Tony Polion to major in the Partlow Police Department. Polion, who has 3½ years of continuous service at Partlow, will serve as director of police/communications.Partlow also announced that Jeanette Jenkins, client training specialist I, was named Employee of the Quarter for January-March 2007. Jenkins, who has 15½ years of continuous service, received a plaque and $25 from the Patrons of Partlow during a reception held in her honor.Vanessa Pratcher received a Merit Award during the Extension Support Personnel Association’s 20th annual meeting May 16-18 in Mobile.Pratcher, an administrative support assistant II for the Hale County Cooperative Extension System office, was cited for her role in helping families and individuals enhance their lives through extension and for maintaining professional development through ESPA.Lucy Arnold Sikes, president of the Tuscaloosa Advertising Federation, was recently named President of the Year by the Seventh District of the American Advertising Federation. The Seventh District also named the Tuscaloosa Advertising Federation its Club of the Year.The Club of the Year honor was based on competition in eight categories of club achievement. The Tuscaloosa club placed first in Club Management, Advertising Education, Programs, Government Relations, Membership and Diversity. The club placed second in Communications and third in Public Service.The AAF Seventh District includes more than 25 chapters and 20 student chapters in Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana.The Tuscaloosa Advertising Federation also received honors in the national AAF Club Achievement Competition. Competing against 250 clubs, Tuscaloosa won second place for Club Management and Government Relations and third place for Advertising Education and Diversity/Multicultural Initiatives.Sikes will accept the club’s awards and cash prizes during the American Advertising Federation’s national convention in Louisville in June.Sikes is the director of communications for the University of Alabama’s “Our Students, Our Future" campaign. She handles the $500 million campaign’s marketing, communication and public relations initiatives. Before joining the capital campaign staff, she was coordinator of corporate relations for the UA Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration.Previously, she was vice president for public relations for the University of Houston Alumni Organization, the public relations and communications director for the Mobile Convention and Visitors Corporation in Mobile and the assistant director of fashion, public relations and special events for Mercantile Stores Southeast in Montgomery, the buying office for 23 Gayfers/JB White department stores in four states.Sikes graduated from Florida State University in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in communications.More than 50 years old, the Tuscaloosa Advertising Federation has 80 members and is active in projects to benefit community causes, supports student-advertising education and promotes professionalism and ethics in the advertising industry. The club also conducts the local ADDY competition, which annually recognizes the best advertising within the Tuscaloosa market.McAbee Construction Inc., an industrial construction and fabrication company based in Tuscaloosa, has announced the promotions of four employees.Ken Todd has been promoted to project manager. His responsibilities include managing plant expansion and maintenance projects in the automotive industry in Vance and several environmental and maintenance projects for power plants in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi.Todd joined McAbee Construction in 2004 as an assistant project manager.A native of Troy, Todd attended Covenant College and then the University of Alabama, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 2004. He will sit for his registered professional engineering test in the fall of 2008.Rick Estis has been promoted to project manager. He is in charge of the Birmingham area, where he oversees capital projects and maintains a work crew of about 80 craftsmen.Estis joined McAbee Construction in 2003 as an assistant project manager, and then became maintenance planner and expediter at a paper mill in Calhoun, Tenn., serving as an agent for the mill through McAbee. He was named general superintendent in 2005 for McAbee’s job site at a steel producing facility in Fairfield.A native of Tuscaloosa, Estis grew up in Fayette, attended Bevill State Community College and then Auburn University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 2003.Mike Pongerayter has been promoted to senior project manager. His responsibilities include managing plant expansions and maintenance projects, and supervising other project managers on expansion and maintenance projects at various industrial sites in the Southeast.Pongerayter joined McAbee Construction in 1997 as an assistant project manager and was later promoted to project manager.A native of Camden, Pongerayter attended Patrick Henry Junior College in Monroeville, and then worked as an apprentice millwright with McMillan-Bloedel in Pine Hill. In 1976, he joined Yeargin Construction Co. as a millwright at a paper mill in Monroeville. He later worked for Brown and Root as a millwright foreman, general foreman and then senior general foreman until 1991, and then worked for various contractors in the Southeast until 1997.Lee Bailey has been promoted to project manager. His responsibilities include managing plant expansion and maintenance projects for paper mills in Mahrt and Pennington, and a steel mill in Tuscaloosa. Also, he recently completed a design-build contract for a pipe bridge for a natural gas utility company in Adamsville.Bailey joined McAbee Construction in 2003 as an assistant project manager in the estimating department. He later became onsite/field manager for a major plant expansion in Tuscaloosa, and then worked under a project manager for two years on various size projects around Tuscaloosa and Birmingham for clients in the automotive, steel, tire and roofing industries.A native of Tuscaloosa, Bailey attended Shelton State Community College and in 1998 transferred to Universal Technical Institute, where he earned a certificate in automotive technology. In 1999, he joined Tuscaloosa Toyota as an automotive technician and achieved master automotive technician certification through the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence.Bailey left the automotive field in 2001 and attended the University of Alabama, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business management in 2003. He also holds an HVAC contractor’s license for the state of Alabama.How to get in Business BuzzBusiness Buzz is compiled weekly from local businesses highlighting promotions, awards and achievements.For Sunday publication, send information to The Tuscaloosa News by the preceding Wednesday at noon. Photographs can be mailed or e-mailed in JPEG format. Submissions may be edited for space or content.Mail submissions to P.O. Box 20587, Tuscaloosa, AL 35402, or e-mail to michael.james@tuscaloosanews.com. Fax notices should be sent to 205-722-0187.